Platytroctes Gunther, 1878
Diagnosis: body deep and highly compressed, upper and lower profiles formed of fleshy keels to give leaf-like appearance, the median scales producing almost a saw-edge; solid tissue along belly at least as deep as caudal peduncle. Snout fairly blunt, no premaxillary tusks. Gillrakers(29) 33-40 (8-11 on upper limb). Branchiostegal rays 5-6. Pyloric caeca 5, with 5-7 terminal lobes. No pit behind upper part of shoulder girdle. Dorsal fin far back on body, with 17-21 finrays; pectoral fins small, with 19-25 finrays; pelvic fins absent; anal fin about opposite and equal to dorsal fin, with 15-19 finrays. No light organs. Most scales bearing a keel, the fish rough to touch; lateral line without enlarged modified scales, 85-107 scales in lateral series above it, 18-20 scales above lateral line and 18-20 below it at level of dorsal and anal fin origins. Colour: uniform dark, but with black band on upper and lower edges of caudal peduncle. Size: to 18 cm, usually 12-16 cm.
Habitat: bathypelagic, at 385 m (gut contents of a cod) down to more than 1,000 m. Food: no data. Reproduction: no data.
Distribution: scattered records from west of Morocco, off Portugal, Bay of Biscay and Denmark Strait. Elsewhere, southward to about 9° 25' N, also tropical parts of western Atlantic and Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Species 1.
Recent revisions: Parr (1960), Sazonov (1976).
Species of this genus in the program:
Platytroctes apus